Oil

 Perhaps one of the most profound and wide ranging economic factors in the world are the fluctuating prices of oil, which are perhaps second in importance only to the impact of agriculture and food prices. The price of oil effects almost every facet of society's economy because of the domino effect it has in the necessity of this product for creating, producing, and transporting such an enormous percentage of all the products and services this society depends on to function in today's world. Because of this, the countries that have the largest natural oil supplies or have control of those supplies, hold the power of the oil prices. These countries use this power to their advantage which can have an extremely negative effect on the economy of countries who are dependent on importing it. For example, this effects, how much it costs large companies to manufacture the automobiles that we drive, how much it costs to transport food and other products, and all this cost eventually is paid by the common consumer, and families trying to survive. Some of the solutions being researched are alternative energy such as solar, wind turbines which are big in Iowa, nuclear, and even water, such as the hoover dam which uses the power of the river to produce electricity for millions of customers. This is our best hope of improving the economy by creating good jobs to produce alternative energy and to get our economy out of the grasp of the hostile countries that produce oil.  

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